Jordan LEADS the way in Mental Health Services
In one year, the Jordan School District went from the Herriman Suicide Crisis, to a leader in Utah Schools in Mental Health Wellness. Jordan is not only the leader in Utah, but we have received national recognition for what WE have done have done out of crisis.
During the 2017-18 school year, the Herriman Community suffered a large Suicide Cluster. Most of us, knew at least one person who took their life. Herriman High school lost at least 8 students to suicide the community lost many more.
The Wall Street Journal reports about the difficult time we had.
RATS in the CELLAR: Dealing with our Mental Health Crisis
Original Facebook Post https://www.facebook.com/drDarrellRobinson/photos/a.1021770451229502.1073741828.1021257137947500/1953576614715543/?type=3&comment_id=1953850761354795&force_theater=true¬if_id=1526102275148362¬if_t=photo_comment&ref=notif
This week (May 11, 2018) the Jordan School Board of Education discussed our reaction to the Mental Health Crisis. I think everyone knows, I am not extremely happy with the way we have handled things. I want to be sure everyone knows, I am NOT placing blame on ANYONE, and
the views I share here are only my own, and not those of the board or any district employee.
I was grateful the Board Member Bryce Dunford started things off. Mr. Dunford quoted the CS Lewis quote called "Rats in the Cellar." The quote is about improving your life and looking for those flaws in our lives. The whole quote is interesting and one I have used in my teaching. I love this line..... "...The rats are always there in the cellar, but if you go in shouting and noisily they will have taken cover before you switch on the light."
The RATS we have in our Cellar were not placed there by any person. They have just come and made themselves comfortable in our district. Our Job is to find and get rid of these RATS without going in, turning on the lights and scaring them away. We need not overreact, place blame, or ignore the fact we have "RATS in the Cellar"
Here are some of the RATS mentioned by Board Members or ones I think we have when we are dealing with Mental Health.
RAT: Something needs to Change with Secondary Counselors. Our current structure cannot support the future Mental Health needs. Counselors once helped us with schedule changes, but they now need to identify and help find those with Mental Health needs. We need more training and more resources so they can do their job. They are the front line to helping students with Mental Health issues.
UPDATE: The district is closely looking at the Secondary Counselor position. Our District Counselor will work close with our Mental Health Expert in the overall needs of the students. We have looked into seeing if some of the duties of counselors can be shifted to aids or other staff members. We will continue to have our eyes on this important position. (See Board Meeting July 30, 2018 for more information).
RAT: The High School Counselors cannot do what they need to do, without the help of our teachers. We need teachers trained and capable of helping students. They are our eyes and ears.
UPDATE: Part of our compensation package for teachers for the 2018-19 school year included a Mental Health Professional Health Day. This is a day where we will train all teachers how to recognized mental health issues and report them to people who can help. Ongoing Mental Health training is continuing.
RAT: We must start thinking like a village. We often shut others out, that could help our schools. It is okay to say we are not equipped to solve this issue ourselves.
UPDATE: The Jordan School District has been working closely with community organizations such as Herriman Community Awareness, Healthy Herriman and Riverton. We have opened up our schools to these community lead organizations and attended their community events.
Jordan has teamed up with News Organizations locally and nationally. KSL has done an amazing job with their reports on “Breaking the Silence.” Nationally the Wall Street Journal and CBS Sports have headlined the work within the Jordan School District.
o https://www.ksl.com/?sid=24891404&nid=165
o https://www.ksl.com/article/46322827/herriman-community-searching-forsolutions-
o https://www.facebook.com/events/1767017506739482/
• Worked with our PTA and Parent Groups.
o https://www.facebook.com/jordandistrict/posts/1884275761590792
RAT: We need to hire a Mental Health Expert. Our Mental Health issues are likely to NEVER go away. We need to hire the qualified people can guide us to experts.
UPDATE: The Jordan School District hired McKinley Withers, as our Health and Wellness Specialist. McKinley has done a remarkable job at providing resources to our students and the community. Have you visited our website? http://wellness.jordandistrict.org/
McKinley has put together a dream team of mental health experts so we can address this issue in our schools and in our homes. He has worked closely with community organizations and the media to help get information out to the community. Here is a few news reports that you might be interested in”
https://kutv.com/news/local/after-7-suicides-new-club-at-herrman-high-aims-to-make-a-difference
RAT: We need an audit of what is broken. I asked that we invite an Educational Research Firm to come into Herriman and the surrounding community and research what might be broken. I found an amazing company called K-12 Insights that has done this for other school districts. I would like for this audit to happen before the end of school so we have the data to analysis.
UPDATE: Nothing I know of has been done in this area. I have asked for this, but as to date, there is not additional information to give to you. I am confident this will be something we will look at in the future. I was able after a battle to personally look over the District Climate Survey results. I had to sign a confidentiality agreement to view them. I believe that a generic version of the results should be released to the public. I think we are doing much better than I thought on these results.
RAT: We need a vision of Mental Health and School Safety issues. This should have been in place long ago. I do not know what our vision is, we need one. Experts say we should be discussing these issues, at least quarterly during calm times. I believe we should now be discussing these issues at least monthly in our school board meetings. This should be our HIGHEST priority. I was told we should not talk about this, but experts say this in not true.
UPDATE: Mental Wellness and School Safety have become two of the most important responsibility of the Jordan School Board of Education. These topics have been on our agenda at least quarterly. More often they have been on our agenda monthly and at times every meeting. WE will continue to make Mental Health and Wellness and school Safety important topics in our board room.
RAT: We need to develop a Community Action Group dealing with Mental Health Issues. This has been recommended by experts and our schools need to participate in these groups.
UPDATE: This is similar to the above rat. The school is just one of the safety nets for students who are in crisis. The community is also an important Safety net. Churches can be a safety net for those who choose to have a place of worship. The Jordan School District continues to work with these outside organizations. WE provide these groups spaces to meet, and we send our specialist to their events should they request.
RAT: Students need opportunities to talk about this in small groups. Research shows mass assemblies are not as useful as small group discussions.
UPDATE: Several of our schools have created times that small groups of students can talk about these issues. Some during MAP time, but more common with groups like HOPE Squad and The Golden Gate Club.
RAT: We have to start COMMUNICATING with the public. We are not doing all we can to Communicate with the public letting them know what we are doing. The community is our partner. We are doing better, but we are not doing enough.
Update: I always say I am easy to please and hard to satisfy. I think the Jordan School District is communicating better than we had in the past. WE have a long ways to go. One of the reasons I supported the hiring of our new Superintendent Dr. Godfrey is his ideas to increase communication. He is doing an amazing job with his Jordan SuperCast podcast. Have you listened to these? Here is one about what we are doing with Suicide Prevention. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-6-suicide-prevention/id1479236840?i=1000452928255
RAT: We can not leave this issue with just Secondary Counselors. We need an elementary psychologist or LCSW in our schools. Research says that children at ages 8-10 start dealing with Mental Health Issues.
UPDATE: The Jordan School District has hired psychologist in every elementary and LCSW in our secondary schools. WE have become a leader in the state in Mental Health Support.
RAT: Our counselors are too busy. Many of the things our counselors do, can be done by aids. We are paying Master Level Employees to do things others can do.
Why do we do things the way we do, we are following the State model. The State of Utah needs to revise their model.
UPDATE: I do not see movement on this topic yet. We need to keep working on this rat.
RAT: Many people are not using all the resources they could Some students are not aware of the SAFE Utah app. We need to educate students and parents, what resources are available to them.
UPDATE: I think students and parents have and know how to use the SAFE Utah app. In talking to one high school principal they told me they get about one report per day from the SAFE Utah app that they follow up on.
RAT: We need to identify students at risk. Counselors and teachers can help, but everyone in the community can help. We can provide more education on what we should be looking for.
UPDATE: The Jordan School Board approved teacher and student professional development and training. All teachers have been trained on what to look for. This needs to be ongoing.
RAT: We also need to know what outside sources we can and can not use. Laws exist that prevent us from doing everything we want to do.
UPDATE: WE have worked with lawmakers to update laws and gain resources in this area. Our legislative committee has placed Mental Health on the Jordan District Legislative priorities every year.
RAT: The Jordan School Board needs to make sure we look at our policies and resources and determine if we have the right policies in place. We can have great influence if we have the right policies in place.
UPDATE: The Jordan School District did explore our policies and have updated several in this area. Policy revision is an ongoing process.
RAT: We need to teach our youth how to problem solve. Many of our students are not equipped to solve these tough problems that come their way. We need these skills embedded in our curriculum.
UPDATE: I need to follow up on this. I do not know what changes we made on this rat.
These RATS (Problems) exist in our schools according to me. I do not believe they are Herriman Problems or Jordan School Problems. These are social issues that we need to tackle and deal with the best we can.
One thing I know for sure, we need to show kindness and love to each other. Our students need to feel that, but so do each of us. The only way we will find the right solutions is if we stop the blaming and start working together.
It is NOT anyone's fault for where we are today. Working together, we can find the answers for tomorrow. PLEASE join with me and the Jordan School Board and our Schools and District as we work together finding and eliminating the RATS that are in our Cellar.